I caught a little of Falwell on Donahue last night – now, there’s two guys who deserve each other. I half expected them to be arguing about whether Reagan had a chance to beat Jimmy Carter. Donahue was saying that Falwell was intolerant for saying only Christians go to heaven. Now, as a theological matter, the Catholic Church, at least, has softened considerably on this point despite some passages in the Gospel of John that pretty strongly hint at this. The sensible answer for serious Christians is probably, “well, we can’t know what God wants, but why take the chance?” But Falwell, for his own perfectly valid reasons, believes that this is the Will of God. He’s not shy of saying so, and indeed his faith compels him to bear witness to this aspect of the Good News. Donahue would never in a million years argue that it was intolerant for Muslims to make the similar claim for their faith. Falwell’s said some things that were intemperate and insensitive and some that were just wrong, but he’s not calling for anybody to be stoned to death; just saying that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life and no one comes to the Father except through Him . . . that’s intolerant only in the sense that declaring the earth is round is intolerant of the views of flat-earthers because it confronts them with an opposing viewpoint.